Posted: May 02, 2017 12:07 am
dejuror wrote:Leucius Charinus wrote:Josephus and Philo were not preserved other than by the church, so there's not any independence. Most people grant that Eusebius corrupted Josephus. The manuscripts of Philo are also not without their difficulties, especially for example "On the Contemplative Life".
There is no actual evidence that the writings of Philo were corrupted by the 4th century Roman Church. The writings attributed to Philo do not mention any person called Jesus the Christ, the twelve disciples, the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, James, Jude, John and Peter or bishops of Rome and anywhere else.
Eusebius' theory that Philo's "therapeutae" were the "missing link" of Christians between the apostolic age and the age of the church was followed until complications were discovered by academics. To overcome these problems Coneybeare suddenly realised that Philo's "therapeutae" were Jewish. Academics from as early as the later 19th century have seriously questioned the integrity of the text "On the Contemplative Life", attributed to Philo. A number of scholars concluded that the text was a 4th century forgery. Here is a list of paradoxes about this text:
PARADOX 1: Dominance of Literary and archaeological evidence citations
A mass of literary evidence is cited for pagan therapeutae (See TLG etc) .
This mass of literary evidence is corroborated by the archaeological evidence.
One item of literary evidence "Vita De Contemplativa" is cited to establish
a Utopian sect of Jewish therapeutae. This single item of literary evidence
remains uncorroborated by the archaeological evidence.
PARADOX 2: Monastic communities are evidence from the 4th century.
The author of "VC" described a monastic community in the 1st century.
The author states this group (monastic community) was all over the empire.
That makes them the first monastic community in the empire.
The Egyptian monastic community movement belongs to the 4th not the 1st century.
How could the author of "VC" have portrayed a monastic community in Egypt
(or indeed all over the empire) from the 1st century?
PARADOX 3: Was "VC" authored by Philo or someone else?
The author of "VC is virulently anti-Hellenic, Philo is not.
Philo is allied to Greek culture and philosophy, the author of "VC" is not.
Philo praises Pythagoras, Plato, etc while the author of "VC" repudiates them.
Philo has great respect for the symposium, while the author of "VC" presents a detestable, common drinking-bout.
Philo respects the Platonic Eros, the author of "VC" does not.
Source: The Jewish Encyclopedia: by Isidore Singer and Cyrus Adler.
PARADOX 4: Nowhere does "VC" explicitly state the group is Jewish.
That the group of "VC" are Jewish is an assumption drawn from the
authors recounting the story of Moses Dead Sea Surfing Comp. This
mention by the author of "VC" presents as an allusion not a reality.
PARADOX 5: Philo identifies the therapeutae consistently as "them" not "us".
Why would he do that if he viewed them as Jewish?
Philo describes these Theraputae as though 'they' and 'their' religious practices are -alien- to him and his religious practices.
Why would he do that consistently throughout this entire text if he viewed them simply as being fellow Jews practicing the very same Jewish religion as himself?
PARADOX 6: Who were the "worshipers" [of the god(s)] in antiquity
Church scholars have answered this question for us in the past.
For 1400 years the church scholars had us all believing they were Christian.
One hundred years ago a Professor of Theology wrote they were Jewish.
Conybear was the calf who made a new trail which the herd followed to new pastures.
Why are we avoiding the consideration of pagan worshipers?
Because the worshipers as described in "VC" are Jewish?
Why are the biblical academics so dismissive of the ubiquitous pagan worshipers?
Who were the therapeutae of the medical profession and Asclepius for example?
They were the dominant worshipers. They had the largest sector of the temple market.
PARADOX 7: The modern and ancient use of the term "therapeutic".
See therapeutic
therapeutic - definition of therapeutic by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.
The term therapeutic is obviously related to the therapeutae (worshipers) of the healing god asclepius.
Asclepius was the healing god from deep BCE until Nicaea.
His worshipers include Hippocrates and especially Galen.
These people are regarded as the fathers of modern medicine.
The word therapeutic appears to belong to the therapeutae of asclepius.
PARADOX 8: How are the essenes related to the therapeutae?
Are they both fictional Utopian dream groups?
It has recently been argued that VC was only a Philonic utopia:
see Troels Engberg-Pedersen, "Philo's DVC as a Philosopher's Dream"
PARADOX 9: Why Does Clement of Alexandria Call Philo "The Pythagorean"?
This supports the notion that Philo was more of a Greek [Platonist?] than a Jewish theologian.
See David T. Runia
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1584152
Elior says Josephus, inspired by descriptions of life in the Greek city of Sparta, made the Essenes up.
http://www.haaretz.com/scholar-the-esse ... d-1.272034